Our Snow Adventure in Salt Lake City

As I've mentioned before, we went to Salt Lake City, Utah during the long Thanksgiving weekends. We started out from Torrance around 9 a.m. (so much for early start, haihhh). It was a long drive, about 12 hours. We passed through a few states. From California, crossing over to Nevada, Arizona, and then Utah. We had a surprise when we reached Las Vegas. It was raining!!! Not the cats and dogs type, but a really heavy downpour. Dear hubby said it was a record as it has not rained in Nevada for years.

Passing Las Vegas, I can't help but thinking of A-Tom. I was secretly wishing somehow A-Tom will magically come up to our car. You know, just like the movie 'Toy Story' where the toys found their way to their owner? Hehe..pathetic...pathetic... :-P

Anyway, as the days are short, (night by 4p.m.), there's not much to be seen when we reached Arizona. I so wish it was still bright. I could see lines of canyons and rock mountains. Tried as I might to squint my eyes, I still couldn't get a good look. We reached Salt Lake City around 9.30 p.m. (that was 10.30 p.m. Utah time, 1 hour difference from California) and checked in at Best Western Inn. As the kids has had a long nap during the trip, I had to stay up with them. Around 12.30 a.m I managed to get them to sleep, with the promise of a trip to play with snow. So around 7 a.m., Adik Hannah was already up and about, getting ready for her new adventure.

Unknown to us, we were actually very near to the most famous ski spots in Utah. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, Utah is well-know for her ski resorts. There's Alta, Brighton, Solitude, Brian Head, Sundance etc etc. We were near to Cottonwood Canyon where Brighton Ski Resort is located. So off we went. It was quite a mountain to climb. We took our time, admiring the scenery as we went up. The view was breathtaking. Definitely not to be find anywhere in Malaysia (ye la kan....dah namanya negara tropika, mana ada snow, haiyaa..). I'll let you see a few snaps.

And then, we spotted the snow.

We decided to make a quick stop. The kids really wanted to touch the snow. (Termasuk la umminya jugak...haha..tak ngaku la pulak)

Then we went further up.
We reached Solitude Ski Resort first. We decided to have a look.

Then, we decided to go further up! Yeah..to Brighton Ski Resort. It was at the end of the road...the furthest you can go at Cottonwood Canyon.

We went to the ski area and snapped some pictures. I wish we could have gone skiing. Unfortunately we didn't know how, and I didn't want any of us to end up in broken bones. There's a ski school over there, but it cost quite a bomb. Furthermore, we didn't have enough equipments: the snowboards, the ski, the shoes etc etc. Sure we can rent them, but again it will cost another bomb. As this is considered a budget trip, we had to make the best of what we could have lah.
We spent about 20 minutes there. We were actually at the foot of the ski slopes. We didn't want to get knocked up by the skiers. So dear hubby and I decided that we would take the kids to the camp site where we could have some privacy and where it was safer for the kids to goof around.

We spent about half an hour playing in the snow. Then, the kids got too cold. So we said goodbyes to 'Diego', our snowman, and made the trip down the mountain. Along the way, we made a few stops at some creeks. I could't help but admiring the scenery. It was really, really, be-au-ti-ful! Amazing! Fabulous! Indahnya alam ciptaan Tuhan. I felt really blessed to be given the chance to witness the spectacular view. Alhamdulilah, my kids got their chance to experience this in their young age. I had to wait 33 years before I could feel what snow is like! Alhamdulillah...thanks to Rapiscan System who had sponsored our tickets here. Hehehehe.....

Then it was time for lunch. But since it was Thanksgiving, all the restaurants were closed. Even McD! We had to go to Walmart and grabbed some frozen meals. Thank goodness there's a microwave oven in our room. Dear hubby and I planned to go out to the city at night. But we ended up sleeping in the evening and woke up around 7 p.m. By that time the enthusiasm to explore Salt Lake City had already faded away, plus Harith was glued to the tube, watching Spongebob so we decided to pass. And it was freezing. Didn't want the kids to catch the cold so we ended up lazying around in the hotel room. Went to sleep early, getting ready for yet another day of adventure.